Abstract
IO Interactive’s Hitman is a series rife with satirical social commentary. Whether we are configuring an exquisitely ironic fate for a corrupt politician or disguising ourselves as a clown in order to boobytrap a mobster’s barbecue, Hitman specialises in turning death into a punchline. But should murder be a laughing matter? And don’t ‘slapstick-stealth-sandboxes’ like Untitled Goose Game make Hitman’s humour look rather glib and grisly? This chapter uses Hitman to explore how attempts at humour and accusations of humourlessness have helped to redraw the boundaries of gamer culture in the wake of #GamerGate. Analysing the series’ approach to comedy in relation to the work of theorists such as Lauren Berlant and Sianne Ngai, it seeks to shed light on the dynamics of gamer humour/lessness.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Video Games and Comedy |
| Editors | Jaroslav Svelch, Tomasz Z. Majkowski, Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Chapter | 17 |
| Pages | 325-343 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-3-030-88338-6 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-3-030-88337-9 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Keywords
- Videogames
- comedy
- cultural theory
- politics
- game studies
